info@rocksview.uk

Blog

Search:
Fill Your Content With Visions Your Audience Will Want To Chase
Posted by admin

Fill Your Content With Visions Your Audience Will Want To Chase RocksView Digital Hub

best digital marketing agency in abuja 0


One of my favorite motivational speeches happened, of all places, at the Oscars in 2014. The words shared by Matthew McConaughey in his three-minute acceptance speech for best actor can teach you so much.

He spoke of the three things he needs each day – something to look up to, something to look forward to, and someone to chase.

Who he chased surprised me. When he was 15, his hero was who he wanted to be at 25. When he turned 25, his new hero became Matthew at 35. He knew he could never achieve hero status. But he could spend his life trying to become somebody worth chasing.

This wonderful life lesson also works well for content and marketing practitioners.
@McConaughey chases a hero every day – himself in 10 years. It’s a great lesson for #content marketers, says @Robert_Rose via @CMIContent. Click To Tweet

The ideal future inspires people to walk the path

Real life is never as tidy, buttoned up, or clean as you think it can or will be.

You’ve probably worked with agencies or consultants at some point in your career. Maybe they helped you choose a new technology, envision a new website, or create a marketing or content strategy. They probably handed you designs, specifications, or plans that made everything seem very doable. The process of doing it might have ended up being messier, harder, or tougher to do than it seemed. But I bet the vision of the ideal future made you want to try to make it real.

The same holds true with thought leadership content. Visionary thought leadership content presents scenarios about futures that might never happen (or might require a messy process to create). Your own organization might not even live up to the ideal.

But the vision of what could be gives your audience something to chase. As Matthew McConaughey might say, it represents the hero – what your audience hopes to be in 10 years.

But I’ve recently seen companies scaling back their visionary thought leadership to focus more on popular and practical content. They pull away from idealistic or futuristic thinking in favor of “how-to” content about current or popular trends.

Companies mistakenly scale back their visionary thought leadership in favor of the more popular and practical, says @Robert_Rose via @CMIContent. Click To Tweet

Artificial intelligence provides a wonderful example of this. Look at the content that technology companies produce about generative AI. You’ll see a lot of themes such as “how to best use AI in your current marketing” or “top 10 changes you need to make today.”

Those may be good, useful pieces. But I wonder whether the companies have even considered a future that includes generative AI. If I don’t find more visionary content, it feels difficult to trust the depth of their thinking in the practical content.

I understand the reasons for this focus on how-to content. Marketers want to participate in and become the most popular or resonant resource on hot topics. No one wants to be the lone idealist at the party talking about what could be. Rather, they want to be the most popular kid in the school, hip to all the most modern trends, which can help others become hip too. They’re chasing the hero that’s here today.

And every marketer feels the pressure to fill their pipeline with prospects. Often these are people ready to change because they know they need to catch up to today’s standards. People chasing a vision they’re years from achieving may not be ready to talk with sales teams today.

But here’s the problem: What everybody talks about today is rarely where things go.

That’s why it’s a mistake to avoid the visionary.

A content combination to chase

Now, marketers shouldn’t replace their “how-to-do-this-best” content with visionary predictions. You certainly don’t have to abandon your attempts to become the loudest or most resonant voice among the popular ideas. Those are the table stakes for finding people who may align with your worldview.

But help the popular ideas stand out by accompanying them with big, differentiated, or visionary thoughts. If you can be the trusted source of those unique and as yet unexplored thoughts and visions, you bolster the audience’s trust in your more common thought leadership.

In other words, if you help people see the hero (the idealized or visionary thinking) to chase, they’ll trust your recommendations about what to do today even more.

Visionary #content about the future helps audiences trust your recommendations about what to do today, says @Robert_Rose via @CMIContent. Click To Tweet

The desire for an idealized future explains why people don’t hold companies and consultants negatively accountable even if they turn out to be wrong about the ideal vision they presented.

People want to chase their future hero. So the consultancy should present the right strategy, not just the one they think the client can easily achieve. The agency should push the creative beyond the bounds of the client’s comfort. Your content team should create thought leadership that describes a future that even your organization aspires to.

So keep creating content for your audience’s future hero. It gives them (and you) something to chase. Neither of you will ever get there. But you’ll always push the possibilities farther than you originally dreamed.

It’s your story. Tell it well.

Get Robert’s take on content marketing industry news in just five minutes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=videoseries

Watch previous episodes or read the lightly edited transcripts.

Subscribe to workday or weekly CMI emails to get Rose-Colored Glasses in your inbox each week. 

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT:

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content marketing Institute





Source link

6 Things You’re Doing Wrong With Website Content Optimization
Posted by admin

6 Things You’re Doing Wrong With Website Content Optimization RocksView Digital Hub

best digital marketing agency in abuja 0


SEO-mistakes-390×215.png” alt=”” width=”390″ height=”215″ srcset=”https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/SEO-mistakes-390×215.png 390w, https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/SEO-mistakes-600×330.png 600w, https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/SEO-mistakes-125×69.png 125w, https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/SEO-mistakes-768×423.png 768w, https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/SEO-mistakes.png 946w” sizes=”(max-width: 390px) 100vw, 390px” />A properly optimized website supercharges a content marketing program.

The home for your content assets can build your brand’s authority with search engines and help you capture new leads. It could even turn into an automated sales machine.

But here’s the problem: Many factors go into website content optimization, and many get ignored, forgotten, or dismissed.

Let’s consider six elements that don’t always get the proper attention. Addressing them will help turn your website into a profitable powerhouse.

Mistake 1: Not optimizing for mobile first

Think about these two stats: In 2022, over 92% of global users accessed the internet via mobile phones, and only about 66% accessed the internet using laptops or desktops.

It’s a mobile-first world, so why not optimize for mobile over desktop devices? Here are some ideas on how to do that:

  • Design your site for mobile, then make sure it adapts to other devices instead of designing for desktop first.
  • Use short meta titles and descriptions because they’re easier to digest on mobile.
  • Avoid pop-ups, or at least make sure they don’t cover important content.

When optimizing for mobile, avoid pop-ups or make sure they don’t cover important #content, says Luca Ramassa via @CMIContent. Click To Tweet

Mistake 2: Ignore website performance

In 2023, site visitors have zero patience for slow, lagging, or ill-performing websites. So make sure your website team conducts routine speed checks.

You can use a free tool like Google’s PageSpeed Insights, which provides a score based on the site’s performance, accessibility, use of best practices, and SEO. It also lets you pull your Web Vitals report from Google.

Image source

Fix any problems the tool identifies, some of which may require the help of a developer. Whoever helps fix the bugs also should be well versed in Google’s Web Vitals initiative and tackling potential problems around loading experience, interactivity, and visual stability of page content.

Mistake 3: Forgetting to optimize images and titles

Failing to optimize images and titles creates a major accessibility issue for people who rely on screen readers and text-only browsers. It also means your content won’t “speak” well so search engines can understand the content.

To optimize the text-related elements around your content:

  • Ensure every page – and content asset – contains a meta title and meta description incorporating the targeted keyword.
  • Include an alt title and alt description for all image and video media. If relevant, include your target keyword in both, but make sure to describe what’s in the media.
  • Create a distinct URL for all content assets (i.e., blog posts, gated resources) and include the target keyword.

Failing to optimize images and titles creates a major #accessibility issue for people who rely on screen readers, says Luca Ramassa via @CMIContent. Click To Tweet

Mistake 4: Designing without considering the user experience

From the moment they land on your site, visitors should feel comfortable navigating it. While the look matters, the site map should have an intuitive layout with category tabs placed where they make the most functional sense.

To create a high-quality user experience:

  • Tailor your website copy, visuals, and aesthetics to your ideal audience.
  • Add trust elements such as accolades, stats, testimonials, and experience to build credibility.
  • Present tailored solutions to your target audience’s core pain points.
  • Test your website from the user experience often to make sure it feels intuitive.
  • If you collect pertinent user data through cookies to allow for a hyper-personalized site, don’t forget to include a cookie consent banner and stay up-to-date on all compliance laws.
  • Use Lighthouse, an open-source, automated tool, to gain further insights on improving page quality.
  • Add a feedback form to your website and encourage users to provide constructive criticism, so you can improve their experience.

Tailor your website copy, visuals, and aesthetics to your ideal audience, says Luca Ramassa via @CMIContent. Click To Tweet

Mistake 5: Not having a solid website architecture

Wondering why Google hasn’t indexed your site? The culprit might be your website architecture.

While identifying and fixing the problems, work with a developer who’s well-versed in SEO and knows how to build an SEO-friendly site architecture. Google’s Matt Cutts gives a helpful overview of how it all works together:

To get found by Google, you should:

Mistake 6: Not optimizing content assets for search

When you publish content, you should have a search intent strategy behind it.

To maximize your content’s on-site optimization:

  • Organize your content in dedicated hubs and include all your assets – blog articles, white papers, case studies, etc. – around that topic. Create a “resource” tab under which these hubs are housed.
  • Create topic clusters within the hubs with the related subject matter. Include relevant links to parent and child pages and maintain site architecture integrity.
  • Identify and target keyword phrases for each web page and content asset on your website.
  • Place target and secondary keywords naturally and strategically throughout your pages and assets.

End the mistakes and begin SEO success

When you know what to avoid and what to include, your website can attract more visitors, leads, and customers.

But it all starts with avoiding common mistakes, including not focusing on mobile to failing to have the site and content prepped to attract search engines. Ready to start?

All tools mentioned in the article are identified by the author. Please feel free to suggest additional tools in the comments.

Want more content marketing tips, insights, and examples? Subscribe to workday or weekly emails from CMI.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT:

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content marketing Institute





Source link

Foolish Content Isn’t Limited to One Day a Year
Posted by admin

Foolish Content Isn’t Limited to One Day a Year RocksView Digital Hub

best digital marketing agency in abuja 0


Yes, it’s once again time for fools to rush in. April Fools’ Day is the time when some brands feel free to break from their mold to execute a content “joke.” (Few do it well.)

Unfortunately, foolish content knows no time of year. So instead of focusing April Fool’s content, I decided to look at brand content from the rest of the year to see who’s foolin’ around (and who isn’t).

I found examples in three categories – entertaining, celebratory, and culturally informative content. Let’s explore them.

Entertaining videos from a service provider

The growing popularity of video content prompts companies to get their creative juices flowing. While educational and informational content may be most relevant to their businesses, many try to attract attention by making their videos entertaining, too.

Brand 1: Radiant Plumbing and Air Conditioning

This Austin, Texas-based company started creating window displays with plumbing-related plays on movie titles (Harry Potter and the Deathly Bowels) and television shows (Game of Thrones) about four years ago.

“I just would change the toilet display every few weeks, and movies were just a fun thing to play off,” co-founder Brad Casebier recently told a local television station.

Then, they took that creativity to video, producing spoofs on The Terminator (The Toiletnator) and Napoleon Dynamite. All the actors are Radiant employees, and a small team produces, films, and edits the videos. Its YouTube channel now hosts 282 videos and has 2,600 subscribers.

 

Is it foolish content? No. It’s smart and creative to stand out among a sea of sameness and remain top of mind when people need a plumber in the Austin area.

It’s also attracted national attention as John Oliver discussed the company’s content for six minutes on Last Week With John Oliver and challenged Radiant to make an ad using a movie inspiration he chose. The talk show host promised a $10,000 donation to Central Texas Food Bank and Radiant took the challenge. (Read more of the story here.)

However, one thing is a little foolish. Its YouTube about page doesn’t include a phone number for people in central Texas who need a plumber right away.

Brand 2: Roto-Rooter

Roto-Rooter, a brand with a national audience and name recognition, hosts many videos about all things plumbing related. Like other service companies, it creates many how-to and informational videos. So I got excited to explore its “entertainment” category. But my enthusiasm waned when I watched a few of the videos in that section.

For example, in a series about Thanksgiving-related clogs, Roto-Rooter used Pilgrim figurines to act out a Titanic-inspired scene in a kitchen sink that wouldn’t drain.


On the same “entertainment” page, a video shows a family Thanksgiving experience, including scenes of family members arriving, vegetables being chopped, and toilets flushing. They’re followed by a voiceover on straightforward tips to thwart clogs over the holidays.
Is it foolish content? Yes, for multiple reasons. First, the “Titanic” video feels disconnected from the rest of the content. It seems like someone on the team wanted to do something unusual and filmed the scene in their kitchen sink.

The video description doesn’t even match the visuals. It’s staid and boring and could have been written for any of the Thanksgiving videos:

This holiday season, Roto-Rooter asks all those thankful for their kitchen sinks and garbage disposals to avoid the turkey-day drama by keeping drains clear of skins, oils, and peelings from their Thanksgiving feast. The day after Thanksgiving is Roto-Rooter’s busiest day of the year, unclogging thousands of drains and garbage disposals of dinner prep and clean-up from the festive night before. Be thankful for Thanksgiving leftovers – even the ones you need to throw away – by keeping them out of sink drains.

Even more questionable was Roto-Rooter’s decision to include a cartoonish Native American figurine with the long-out-of-place wide smile and full headdress in a video about a national holiday that many Native Americans view as a day of mourning.

@RotoRooter’s Thanksgiving videos are #FoolishContent because they’re boring and the descriptors don’t match the visuals, says @AnnGynn via @CMIContent. #ContentMarketing Click To Tweet

I won’t trust Roto-Rooter to provide entertaining content in the future (and it likely will fall off my radar of prospective plumbers.)

ADVERTISEMENT

The Enterprise Marketer’s Content Creation Guide: A framework for developing content that attracts, engages, and converts

Elevate your content marketing creation with this 3-part framework based on our experience producing 100,000+ pieces of content. Perfect for enterprise marketers ready to scale. Download the e-book today.

Celebratory content for International Women’s Day

Brands often marry their content marketing with days and months designated to celebrate people and things. International Women’s Day on March 8 is one of those days. It’s designed as a “global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women” and a call to action to fight for equality and parity.

Brand 1: CVS

Around International Women’s Day (March 8), retail pharmacy brand CVS changed its website. As the image below shows, the home page of the CVS website featured a picture of younger women on the street throwing confetti. Alongside the image sits its call to action: Celebrate International Women’s Day with CVS. The options given for “celebrating” include:

  • Schedule a women’s health exam
  • Refill prescriptions,
  • COVID-19 booster, testing, treatment & records

Is it foolish content? Yes. Handling health needs isn’t a great way to celebrate the accomplishments of women – or anyone for that matter. And the image fits the celebratory message, but doesn’t relate at all the health-focused messaging.

CVS did what a lot of brands do with celebratory and recognition days or months – they see the general topic and find a way to shoehorn what they already need to promote or message into that theme. That’s a surefire way to turn off the target audience, who now realize your brand doesn’t care enough about the topic to invest your time creating original, relevant content.

Instead of celebrating women, @CVSPharmacy celebrates Women’s History Month with reminders for women to schedule and exam or refill a prescription, says @AnnGynn via @CMIContent. #FoolishContent #ContentMarketing Click To Tweet

Brand 2: Johnson & Johnson

The global health-care brand Johnson & Johnson used International Women’s Day to tell how women have made an impact in the company since its 1886 founding with an article and infographic.

Click to enlarge

It speaks to its history – 14 founding employees were women – and its present – 54% of new hires in 2021 were women and 48% of management positions are held by women. It looks to the future by speaking to the next generation through its Scholars Award Program to encourage women in the science, technology, engineering, math, manufacturing, and design fields. It also speaks globally on how it’s helping women’s health and championing women in the workforce.

Is it foolish content? No. Johnson & Johnson understood the purpose of International Women’s Day and created content that fits the celebratory and activist messaging. Interestingly, the page says it was updated in March 2023, indicating it had been published previously. That’s another smart move – you don’t always need to craft original content or fool your audience into thinking the content is new.

The headline (9 Ways Johnson & Johnson Has Supported Women Since 1896) seems a little foolish. Why not turn it around to put the focus on the women not the company? Here’s a suggestion: 9 Ways Women Have Shaped Johnson & Johnson Since 1896.

Content marketing to attract employees

Charged with marketing the company to potential employees, the career sections of brand websites serve multiple purposes. More than a home for job listings, the career section should tell the story of the employee experience – to help prospective candidates understand better if the company will be a good fit for them.

Brand 1: GE

GE knows what visitors to its career section want – a job. That’s why they start with a search tool and the heading “Find the jobs that match your strengths.”

From there, they feature a diverse range of stories about their employees, tackling topics like the impact of their work, what led them to their careers, acceptance and awareness, and much more.

Then they tell the story of what life is like at GE from multiple perspectives – working at GE, students, inclusion and diversity, and benefits.

Is it foolish content? Not at all. GE hosts a well-designed, cohesive site that helps prospective candidates understand the culture, co-workers, the bigger picture, and what they might get from working with the global brand.

Brand 2: Caterpillar

In its production careers section, Caterpillar emphasizes “Manufacturing & Production” by making it the largest header, followed by these two paragraphs:

Manufacturing is at the heart of our company. For more than 90 years, Caterpillar has been providing innovative customer solutions – from the track-type tractor that gave us our Caterpillar name, to the diesel engine, the elevated sprocket, the hybrid excavator and more. Without our worldwide manufacturing employees, none of this would be possible. They touch everything we make that digs, powers, builds, crushes, cuts and operates. Quite simply, it’s every product we sell, every service we provide and everything in between.

A chance to make quality products that matter.

An image header above the primary text reads in smaller print, “Do Work That Matters,” with the subhead, “Here Your Work Impacts the World.”

The page also includes a thumbnail to a video that tells an employee’s story. As visitors scroll down, they see a couple of production-focused articles from 2021, followed by an infographic celebrating manufacturing. At the end, employee images are used with their first name and a quote about their work at Caterpillar.

Is it foolish content? Yes, in the design and generic words. The first sentences speak to the company’s lengthy history and its more remarkable products. Those words would work on almost any other general Caterpillar page – they don’t speak to the experience of working for the company.

Then, the text connects to careers with a platitude: “Without our employees, none of this would be possible.” That throwaway line wouldn’t make a prospective employee feel that the company truly cares about them. After all, every company, regardless of the industry, could say the same.

Plus, the page design emphasizes the category (manufacturing and production) more than the mission (do work that matters), communicating once again that the mission is less important.

Using employees in career section content is a good move, but the videos seem like an afterthought, and the quotes are generic. Mary says, “I love what I do and the people I work with.” Then there’s this line: “Shaun motivates those around him with his dedicated commitment to the company and his unyielding focus on excellence.” That isn’t even a quote – it’s just a statement about Shaun.

@CaterpillarInc’s manufacturing & production careers page uses a generic design and words about the company that could work on any page, says @AnnGynn via @CMIContent. #FoolishContent #ContentMarketing Click To Tweet

Stop the foolin’

April Fools’ content will fill your feeds over the next few days. Use it as a reminder to revisit your own content. Is any of it foolish? By that, I mean:

  • Does the content deliver on the promise? Are you really entertaining the audience or just saying they should be entertained?
  • Does the content fit the context? Are you creating content relevant to the occasion or fitting the occasion into your existing content?
  • Does the content collectively serve the mission? Are you creating all the content elements by keeping the intended audience – and their purpose – in mind?

Let us know what you find in your foolish content in your analysis – or if you see others joking around, please share that.

If you have an idea for an original article you’d like to share with the CMI audience, you could get it published on the site. First, read our blogging guidelines and write or adjust your draft accordingly. Then submit the post for consideration following the process outlined in the guidelines.

In appreciation for guest contributors’ work, we’re offering free registration to one paid event or free enrollment in Content marketing University to anyone who gets two new posts accepted and published on the CMI site in 2023.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT:

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content marketing Institute





Source link

How to master Google News optimization to boost content visibility and traffic
Posted by admin

How to master Google News optimization to boost content visibility and traffic RocksView Digital Hub

best digital marketing agency in abuja 0


Let’s set the record straight. Google News optimization is not only for news sites. 

Any website which regularly invests in timely content can reach engaged audiences and drive quality traffic with a solid Google News SEO strategy. 

Google News-driven results send over 24 billion clicks per month to publishers. Here’s how to claim your share. 

Google News aggregates and amplifies story exposure

Google News is an aggregator that offers somewhat newsworthy local and international stories from numerous sources, categorizing content into topics.

I say “somewhat newsworthy” because what Google defines as “news” is now lax.

The publisher no longer needs to be a dedicated news site. You can get in with your blog if you regularly produce high-quality, original and timely content.

You may get in without knowing it, as Google automatically considers any content in its index that complies with Google News content policies for inclusion.

Ranking in Google News can be a game-changer for content visibility. However, audience targeting and reach can vary greatly depending on the placement.

Partnership placements

Google News Showcase

The Google News Showcase is a content licensing program in which Google pays participating publishers to curate their best content. 

It’s unique within Google News products because the publisher’s editorial team selects which stories to show readers. 

This selection is displayed in Google Discover and across Google News surfaces in a Sources panel. 

Personalized placements

Google News - personalized placements

Google personalizes content for each individual user based on their interests, sources, locations and past activity on Google Search and YouTube. This algorithm dictates what is shown on:

  • “For you” tab on Google News Android and iOS apps, plus the browser version on news.google.com.
  • “Suggested sources” in news stand tab.
  • Google News app push notifications.
  • Google News daily briefing emails.
  • “News tab” of the YouTube app on TVs.
  • “Subscribe with Google” module in search.

It can deliver a highly engaged audience if your coverage matches the user’s topics of interest.

Location-driven placements

Google News - location-driven placements

For videos, Google News offers placements in:

  • YouTube’s top news.
  • YouTube’s breaking news
  • In U.S. local news shelves.
  • YouTube.com/news 
  • The News section in the YouTube app.

Google News articles also have a chance to show:

  • On YouTube in the developing news information panel.
  • In the news tab in search.
  • The headlines section of the app and site.
  • Down into the full coverage reports.
  • The local news carousel in universal search.

However, the ultimate prize is securing a spot in the top stories carousel within universal search. This will also show if you ask Google Assistant news-driven queries such as “What’s the news?”

None of these placements are personalized. Everyone of a qualifying age who shares the same region, language and location settings sees the same content.

For this reason, non-personalized placements have a higher impact potential. Those within universal search can also offer an easier route to display for highly competitive search terms than attempting to rank position one.

So with all that potential visibility on the line, what should you do to appeal to the Google News algorithms?

It’s not as simple as a few bullet points

Google News - Ranking documentation

The bullet points on the “Ranking within Google News” guidelines are too simplistic and offer little tactical guidance. 

Even though Google does flesh them out in the News Initiative documentation, the added value is minimal. 

However, the documents clarify that much of the ranking system used in Google News is shared with that of Google Search.

For example, with usability. This is all about clean, well-structured, cross-browser and cross-device compatible code that delivers on core web vitals. 

Now that Google News no longer requires AMP for the top stories carousel, usability optimization for Google News and Google Search is essentially the same.

From here on, let’s assume that any point shared by both the Google News and Search algorithms is a given, and instead concentrate on specific SEO tactics for Google News that go beyond what you’re already doing for Google Search.

SEO“>Branding essentials for Google News SEO

When it comes to the Google News algorithm, the conventional signals of relevance and popularity take a backseat to source authoritativeness. 

Think “E-E-A-T to the max” and curate credibility with these four tactics.

Establish a strong presence in Google Publisher Center

Establish a strong presence in Google Publisher Center

It’s not required to submit your site in Google Publisher Center, but it offers clear benefits:

  • Improve discoverability: Become eligible to appear in the Newsstand area of Google News.
  • Branding control: Set a publication name, category, language, location and visual style.
  • Topic optimization: Google News algorithms heavily utilize the topic layer of the Google Knowledge Graph. Publisher Center allows you to classify content into section feeds to exhibit your expertise in specific topics. Ideally, at least one of these sections will be tailored for local news.
  • Grow your following: Readers can follow your publication, greatly increasing the chance your content will be shown in personalized placements. Support this action like you would your social media accounts by adding a Google News follow button linking to your publications on site.
  • Convert readers to subscribers: By leveraging the “Subscribe with Google” paywall.

To control the order of articles on your page in Google News, submit content as a feed rather than a section URL.

Highlight author expertise

Include a byline linked to the author’s page, or at least an author box, in every article submitted to Google News. 

The content must work toward establishing expertise and being recognized as an authority in their field. Ensure bios include:

  • Author’s full name.
  • A professional headshot.
  • A meaningful short bio of 2-3 sentences, including relevant professional experience and awards.
  • Links to professionally used social media accounts.
  • Links to that author’s published articles.

For a real competitive advantage, collaborate with your key editorial team members to have them entered into the Google Knowledge Graph. 

Being associated with Google-acknowledged contributors enhances your publication’s credibility and reinforces Google’s trust in the value of your content.

Provide newsroom transparency

Build trust through an About page. This should include:

  • Information on the publication (i.e., mission statement, editorial policies and standards, a brief history and key achievements).
  • Information on the publisher, company or funding source behind it.
  • Staff information, both editorial and business.
  • Headquarters address.
  • Non-generic contact information, including email address and phone number.

Invest in a strong social media presence

Invest in a strong social media presence

The impact of social media signals on Google News rankings is contentious. 

But at the very least, brands aiming to gain traction in Google News should invest in regular tweeting to become eligible for the “From Twitter” section in “Full coverage” reports and the Twitter carousel in universal search, which appears on approximately 35% of all U.S. news related queries according to NewzDash.

Technical essentials for Google News visibility

While Google News may include your article or video content without you doing any specific optimizations, the only way to see the channel’s full potential is by having the technical basics of Google News SEO in place. This involves four key actions.

Entice Googlebot to crawl faster

Like any Google surface, your content can not be indexed by Google News without first being crawled. 

But speedy crawling is even more critical in Google News as it works off a short-term index and heavily biases fresh content. Making indexing speed paramount to success.

In addition to crawl optimization fundamentals, get indexed fast by:

  • Submitting a news sitemap to Google Search Console and adding the URL to your robots.txt file. Be sure URLs are added immediately upon publication and removed after 48 hours. 
  • Using WebSub to notify Google instantly of new content, else content from section feeds will only update hourly.
  • Submitting news-focused YouTube videos and article content as a section RSS feeds, website URLs or profile links in Google Publisher Center.
  • Embedding videos hosted on external sites (hopefully YouTube to reap the full visibility benefits) in on-site content via an <iframe> tag.

Exceed image expectations 

Images are a key driver of click-through rate (CTR) from Google News. 

On news surfaces, Google may show various sizes of thumbnails or, in some cases, no image due to the article’s available image aspect ratios and resolutions. 

If the article’s image is subpar, it won’t qualify for all positions.

As such, it is essential for news content to contain at least one image that meets the requirements of:

  • Resolution: 50,000 pixels minimum when multiplying width and height.
  • Aspect ratio: 16:9
  • Format: JPEG, JPG or PNG. WebP works well for Google products but can potentially cause compatibility issues with other marketing tools, such as those for email or push notifications.
  • Placement: Placed on the page near the article title.

To avoid being limited by image quality and outperform competitors, work toward the following:

  • Ensuring 1,200 x 674 pixels resolution.
  • Adding 4:3 and 1:1 aspect ratio versions.
  • Setting max-image-preview:large or use AMP to encourage a larger image preview rather than a thumbnail image.
  • Posting original, sharp images.

Technology can aid certain requirements, such as automated cropping to the additional aspect ratios and warning messages for non-compatible formats, but not the actual content of the image.

Image preview

Don’t allow your article to get lost in a sea of sameness.

A standout image can compel a reader to click on your story over a competitor’s, resulting in Google News algorithms driving more visibility for that story and other stories.

Ultimately, you must train your editorial teams on the “why” behind image requirements for Google News SEO because it impacts visibility in Google News and beyond (i.e., Discover, universal search and many other niche ecosystem touchpoints).

Eliminate any date confusion

Google states they don’t “depend on a single date factor because all factors can be prone to issues.”

Leave no room for interpretation. Show a single, user-visible date and label it appropriately with text like “Published” or “Last updated.”

Do this on a dateline in between the headline and the article text in a clear format.

07/03/2023 could be read as either March 7th or July 3rd, depending on your location.

7th March 2023 or Jul 3, 2023, on the other hand, leave no ambiguity.

Minimize the presence of other dates on the page.

Although it may be unavoidable within the article body, you control it in surrounding elements, such as not including the publication date of related articles.

And as a final fallback, add “datePublished” or “dateModified” structured data, including the date and time.

Be mindful of using the correct time zone and take daylight saving time into account. 

News-specific structured data

Use NewsArticle structured data markup (the appropriate choice over Article or BlogPosting) to help the indexer clearly understand the content and show your desired headlines, images, and date information in Google News.

News-specific structured data

But don’t stop there. Additionally, as appropriate, add markup for:

  • Author to connect your brand entity to your author’s entities and the authority they bestow.
  • NewsMediaOrganization over the more generic Organization.
  • VideoObject to help videos appear on news surfaces.
  • Speakable if you target the U.S. English-speaking market and seek to be a first mover on news played through Google Assistant.
  • ClaimReview to apply a label to published stories with fact-checked content, such as round-up stories that contain multiple fact-check analyses.
  • FAQ as FAQ rich results are often featured within full coverage reports in Google News.
  • LiveBlogPosting that provides closest-to-live coverage of an event through continuous updates for a limited period. This provides a red “LIVE” label in the top stories carousel and can boost rankings over non-live content for breaking news topics.

Get the daily newsletter search marketers rely on.

Content essentials for Google News rankings

Once you have the branding and technical fundamentals, take it to the next level with Google News content optimization techniques.

Consistent topic coverage

While reporting on news as it happens is essential, effective Google News optimization requires planning news stories into your editorial calendar. 

Leveraging relevant trending topics allows you to win visibility on news-related search terms that trigger the “Top stories” carousel. As such, keyword research remains critical.

Google Trends

Google Trends is an excellent resource beyond the trending now section. 

In explore, select the “News search” option to identify topics with consistent news interest, such as celebrity names, or when predictable topics, such as annual events, will take off.

Plan continuous coverage of the topics for as long as relevant. 

For breaking news stories, this means steadily publishing new, relevant information at a cadence that matches the story. 

For topics with predictable longevity, this means publishing or refreshing an article every few days during that period. 

This topical expansion can include news reports, interviews, opinion pieces, data journalism, photojournalism, live coverage, etc. Consistently plan ways to explore fresh angles.

Resource constraints? Syndicated reportage is preferable to no coverage. 

Google asks for originality and promises to feature the publication that broke the story, but analysis highlights how freshness often wins over originality. 

Utilizing indexable syndicated content can drive significant organic sessions, but it should supplement original content, not replace it entirely.

And remember, blindly chasing trending topics isn’t a solid strategy. Evaluate its relevance to your editorial goals before investing resources. 

Because more than ever, news publishers are restricted by the need for E-E-A-T. A publication will typically only achieve top stories visibility for topics that they regularly cover.

For example, ESPN is an authority in sports, but if they publish on an unrelated technology trend, they will not have the topical authority to be seen in Google News.

Focus on freshness

Google states:

“The URLs used for web location sections should regularly link to fresh content. Since we look for content less than 90 days old, the site needs updates regularly.”

Yet, XML sitemaps are limited to the last 48 hours.

A quick sampling on Google News surfaces will often be heavily biased to under 10 hours in the non-personalized and two days or under in the personalized placements. 

It’s clear: the more recent the content, the higher chance of it being surfaced.

So when you see a piece of content bringing in significant sessions start to drop off, refresh it by doing a substantial update to the content. 

This could include adding fresh text, rewriting key elements (i.e., the title or subheading) or swapping out images or videos.

To get the page recrawled quickly, ensure the refresh triggers an update to the publication date on page and the last mod date in XML sitemaps and link the story from a prominent location such as the homepage or category page.

If you don’t regain traction through republishing but know the user interest in the topic remains trending, publish a new article from a different angle to appeal to Google News’s desire for diversity of content.

But don’t be fooled. Freshness is not only about the publication date of an individual piece of content. They also factor in the overall brand. This is evidenced by numerous comments directly from Google:

So regular, relevant publishing is key.

Headlines matter

While Search results often display the <title> tag, Google News may use this, but more often will take the <h1> to use in the snippet. 

As such, it’s vital to use relevant, entity-focused keywords in the headline and convey as much of the story as possible. 

Essentially, treat your on-site article or YouTube video headline similar to how you would a title tag – knowing they don’t need to exactly match to rank, but there should be a strong correlation.

Google was uncharacteristically specific on headline requirements:

“Article titles should be at least 10 characters and between 2 and 22 words” and “Headlines should not exceed 110 characters.” 

I say “was” because, in January, they removed the 110-character limit for the headline property in the Article structured data documentation, saying:

“There’s no hard character limit; instead, we recommend that you write concise titles as long titles may be truncated on some devices.” 

It’s likely the best practice guideline has been forgotten in the update.

Witty puns or lengthy lead-in style headlines that work well offline will only confuse search engines that rely heavily on headlines to determine ranking. 

They are also less likely to win the click when directly competing for the user’s attention on a surface like Google News. 

Focus on making headlines clear and compelling, using the active voice and present tense to increase CTR.

Understand the impact of Google News optimization

Just submitted a publication? Don’t expect an immediate impact. 

Google News takes up to four weeks to review content after your first submission.

Understand the impact of Google News optimization

Once you’re in, start by confirming how many URLs submitted to Google News are crawled and indexed from an article and video perspective.

This data is available in the indexing reports when you filter to your Google News sitemap.

When you then move on to try to understand how that content is performing in Google News, you hit challenges.

Google doesn’t report its impact under clear line items but splits reporting over multiple sources or includes it in nondescript referrers and many other touchpoints.

As such, Google News surfaces don’t receive as much credit as they deserve.

Google News touchpoints

Nevertheless, use your data to understand topic coverage and hone your strategy.

Key takeaway

Don’t try to be everything to everyone. Focus on your editorial specialties to establish E-E-A-T.

Put in place a strong technical foundation, then strategically publish on relevant trending topics to leverage the vast visibility of Google News.

Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.



Source link

What’s the Difference + Which is Right for You?
Posted by admin

What’s the Difference + Which is Right for You? RocksView Digital Hub

best digital marketing agency in abuja 0


Access to relevant information is, without a doubt, the number one requirement for making good business decisions. For this reason, most companies use tools that help them gather and analyze customer data.

A woman takes notes while observing CDPs, CRMs, and DMPs on her laptop.

There are three types of platforms that are particularly popular — CDPs, CRMs, and DMPs. But what do these abbreviations stand for? How do these solutions differ, and which is best for you?

This guide shares the key features of each platform, as well advantages and disadvantages. Let’s get started.

CDP vs CRM vs DMP

CDPs: How do they work?

CRMs: How do they work?

DMPs: How do they work?

Get HubSpot's Free CRM Now

CDP vs. CRM vs. DMP

While all three platforms collect data, CDPs focus on customer interactions with your product or service. CRMs focus on customer interactions with your team. Lastly, DMPs focus on extracting data from second- and third-party sources.

Before we dive into details, let’s take a quick look at what CDP, CRM, and DMP are.

Customer Data Platforms

Customer data platforms (CDPs) are tools for gathering first-party data from various sources to gain a full view of each customer. The data is then used by marketers to create personalized marketing campaigns. CDPs are specifically designed for marketers.

While HubSpot’s known for its CRM, some customers can use it as a CDP alternative as some packages track data like:

  • Contact-level interactions with your site, landing pages, emails, social posts, and reps.
  • Website and various inbound marketing analytics.
  • Payments or deal progress of those purchasing products.

Customer Relationship Management Platforms

Customer relationship management (CRM) platforms track and manage interactions with customers and prospects throughout their entire lifecycle.

CRMs have a positive impact on improving business relationships, which translates into the company’s growth. It can be used by sales, marketing, and customer success alike.

For example, CRMs like HubSpot help sales teams automate processes like data entry, email sequences, logging interactions, and customer service.

For more on CRMs, check out this guide.

Data Management Platform

Data management platforms (DMP) collect and organize data from first-, second-, and third-party sources including online, offline, and mobile. It includes data like demographics, browsing behavior, location, and device.

DMPs enable businesses to effectively segment customers, which in turn helps with creating a more personalized offering.

All of the above-mentioned platforms share the same goal: Improving the customer experience through data. However, they each use a different approach to achieve it.

While both CRMs and CDPs collect customer data, the former focuses on customer interactions with your team and the latter collects data on customers’ interactions with your product or service.

Similarly, CDPs are often confused with DMPs, as both of these platforms focus on gathering information. DMPs, however, usually anonymize customer data gathered from second- and third-party sources.

Customer Data Platforms: How do they work?

A CDP is a platform for collecting data from online and offline sources. This information is then used to build a 360° view of customers. The data can be stored for as long as necessary.

When it comes to data updates, you don’t have to do them manually in the platform. A CDP pulls data automatically from other systems and aggregates it.

Now, let’s explore the advantages and disadvantages of working with a CDP.

Advantages of CDPs

1. Building Unified Ideal Customer Profiles

A CDP comes in handy when building ideal customer profiles (ICPs) as it stores all your customer data. Regardless of your campaign source — be it social media, email, or search — you can gather all the data in a single place. This helps with two things:

  1. You can gain a better understanding of each customer’s journey.
  2. You can create effective strategies for reaching them.

CPDs have become even more important now that companies use multiple touchpoints to communicate with customers. Using various platforms to collect data and make sense of it can be counterproductive and confusing. Turning to a CDP is a much better option.

2. Better Personalization

The more data you have, the more personalization opportunities you get. As marketers, we know that that’s exactly what customers want. In fact, 60% of customers admit they’ll become repeat buyers after a personalized shopping experience.

While the stakes are high, a lot of businesses struggle with personalization due to insufficient customer data. A customer data platform can be a solution to this problem.

3. Higher Revenue

CDPs can boost customer satisfaction and intelligent targeting, which results in higher revenue. By collecting data from a number of sources you get a full view of each customer. You can then adjust your offers and your messaging to match their preferences.

That should result in better brand recognition and customer engagement, all of which positively impact conversion rates and your revenue.

Disadvantages of CDPs

1. Hard to Scale

Not all CDPs are created equal. If you use a CDP designed to process smaller amounts of data, then you might face scaling issues when your customer base starts to grow. The processing speed decreases significantly and you might even come across redundancies.

Initially, it might not seem like a big issue. However, if you want to make the most of your customer data, it’s best to select a platform that can handle a growing data volume.

2. Difficult to Extract Data from Source Systems

As mentioned earlier, a CDP is priceless when it comes to creating ICPs, provided that it effectively extracts data from various sources. Unfortunately, some platforms lack key technology components to do that. They may not integrate with third-party software.

In such a scenario, the IT team has to manually extract structured and unstructured data from different sources and input it into the CDP. This is very time-consuming and inefficient. Alternatively, they can write custom code to automatically extract information.

To learn more about CDPs, look at our customer data platform guide.

customer data platforms, tools for gathering first-party data from sources to gain a view of the customer

Customer Relationship Management Platforms: How do they work?

CRMs are where your marketing, sales, and support teams enter information about their interactions with customers. These commonly include notes from all calls and video meetings, support request tickets, live chat conversations, and customer satisfaction survey scores.

In essence, CRMs are your single source of truth where you consolidate all the insights on a client. This allows everyone to stay informed and, ultimately, build stronger business relationships.

Advantages of CRMs

1. Improved Customer Service

Let’s begin with the goal CRMs were built for and, simultaneously, their biggest advantage: They strengthen the bonds between the company and the customer.

Let’s say there’s a new account manager at your B2B company about to contact one of your clients. To find out who they’re reaching out to, they open the customer’s profile in the CRM. They see a history of all actions, like purchases and when they last called your support team.

The profile also features firmographic information, like their industry, the primary contact person’s job position, and company size. There might even be information on when the company last received funding. And this is truly just the tip of the iceberg.

The easier it is for your team to learn about a customer, the higher the chances of keeping them happy. And this boosts the chances of selling.

2. Reduced Business Silos

Did you know that support agents who don’t have access to unified tools dedicate 15% of their time to searching for customer information? That’s about six hours a week, which could be spent more productively. A CRM counters this issue, but it also supports a higher company objective — minimizing business silos.

Teams that contribute to and use CRMs for information are better at collaborating. They understand where each team’s role starts, ends, and overlaps.

Plus, if they have a question regarding a recent interaction, they’ll know exactly whom to reach out to for answers.

3. Higher Productivity and Efficiency

CRMs leverage marketing automation, which makes your employees’ daily work much easier and more productive. These tools can help you with repetitive tasks like clicking “send” on emails to relevant customer segments on the right day and time. As a result, your team can focus on tasks that require creativity and human attention — for instance, attending a conference or writing a report.

What’s more, you can use it to spot any patterns that need more attention from the business. For example, if you see a drop in CSAT scores for a customer segment, you can look into the reasons and discuss how to address them.

Disadvantages of CRMs

1. Potentially High Cost

While CRMs are a data gold mine, those that offer advanced features and lots of integrations can be costly. There are a few factors you need to account for to figure out the total cost of CRM software:

  • Subscriptions.
  • Cost of upgrades.
  • Potential customization, especially if the tool lacks integrations.
  • Staff training.
  • IT resources required for software maintenance and implementation.

Additionally, data migration and potential disruptions in business operations might add to the total implementation costs.

2. Integration Problems

Truth be told, your CRM is as good as the data it collects. So if the CRM you use lacks integrations, it won’t properly fulfill its role.

You might also have to spend significant time and money trying to customize your CRM, which might result in a lot of frustration. It’s crucial to ensure that the CRM you’re planning to purchase integrates with the rest of your software before you implement it.

CRM, track and manage interactions with customers and prospects throughout their lifecycle

DMPs: How do they work?

DMPs allow for high-level data management, like collecting demographic info for better customer segmentation. As these platforms don’t need to bind data to specific customer profiles, all information is anonymized.

In addition, DMPs don’t retain historical data, unlike CRMs where keeping history is the main objective.

Advantages of DMP

1. Streamlined Data

The larger the company, the more platforms marketers need to use. In fact, those working at enterprises use an average of marketing-software-tools-by-company-size” rel=”noopener” target=”_blank”>52 tools. With so much technology, it’s virtually impossible to keep an eye out for all critical customer insights.

Here’s where DMPs step in. They allow you to collect data from numerous sources and create accurate audience segments. This means you can build your campaigns and other strategic work on cohesive data.

marketing%20tech%20tools.png?width=847&height=305&name=marketing%20tech%20tools.png” alt=”cdp advertising, the number of marketing tools used by companies” width=”847″ height=”305″ loading=”lazy” style=”height: auto; max-width: 100%; width: 847px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; display: block;” srcset=”https://blog.hubspot.com/hs-fs/hubfs/marketing%20tech%20tools.png?width=424&height=153&name=marketing%20tech%20tools.png 424w, https://blog.hubspot.com/hs-fs/hubfs/marketing%20tech%20tools.png?width=847&height=305&name=marketing%20tech%20tools.png 847w, https://blog.hubspot.com/hs-fs/hubfs/marketing%20tech%20tools.png?width=1271&height=458&name=marketing%20tech%20tools.png 1271w, https://blog.hubspot.com/hs-fs/hubfs/marketing%20tech%20tools.png?width=1694&height=610&name=marketing%20tech%20tools.png 1694w, https://blog.hubspot.com/hs-fs/hubfs/marketing%20tech%20tools.png?width=2118&height=763&name=marketing%20tech%20tools.png 2118w, https://blog.hubspot.com/hs-fs/hubfs/marketing%20tech%20tools.png?width=2541&height=915&name=marketing%20tech%20tools.png 2541w” sizes=”(max-width: 847px) 100vw, 847px”/>marketing-software-tools-by-company-size” rel=”noopener” target=”_blank”>Image source

2. Gaining Access to Second- and Third-Party Data

When we compare CDPs versus DMPs, there’s one key difference — the latter collects and integrates data from second- and third-party sources. It’s also one of its biggest advantages.

This is ideal if you need more information for your personas than what you’ve collected internally. The insights you can access via DMPs come from reputable external sources, which also match your customer profile.

3. Efficient Budget Management

DMPs help you lower advertising spending. How so? You don’t have to run multiple ads simultaneously to boost your chances of reaching the right audience.

DMPs let you engage in re-targeting. For example, you can reach out to prospects who visited your “pricing” page. Or, if you aren’t a subscription-based business, you can even re-target those who bought your product or service in the past.

Each of these groups can be reached through the right channel with tailored messaging.

Disadvantages of DMP

1. Complexity

One of the potential downsides is that DMPs can offer complex functionalities and dependencies, particularly if it has tens or hundreds of integrations. This means that it might have a steep learning curve to use properly (or to its full potential).

Some platforms might also require help from technical teams, like administrators and developers, whenever you need to tweak settings.

2. High Maintenance

As you handle vast amounts of data, you must ensure high-end security to prevent data breaches or cyber-attacks.

That’s not to say that DMPs come unprotected. Quite the contrary — their developers are compliant with the latest protocols. However, you’ll need a security expert to make sure your internal systems are also bulletproof.

data management platform, collects and organizes data from first-, second-, and third- party sourcesImage source

Making the Right Choice for Your Team

When it comes to deciding between CDP, CRM, and DMP, it’s not a matter of choosing one or the other. These platforms fulfill different roles and complement each other.

DMPs can help you with lead generation. CDPs are great for engaging with leads and prospects, while CRMs are made for managing the relationship with your customers. They work best when used together.

All of these tools help you better understand your customers and, as a result, create more personalized experiences, positively impacting revenue.

Whichever solution you go with, make sure it fulfills your needs and, most importantly, that it integrates with your software. Only then you’ll be able to make the most of your data and save yourself from unnecessary frustration and costs.

crm software free



marketing/cdp-vs-crm”>Source link

How to build a values-based agency that drives results
Posted by admin

How to build a values-based agency that drives results RocksView Digital Hub

best digital marketing agency in abuja 0


One of the best things about starting your own business is that you can set it up to reflect your values.

As a leader, you set the stage for:

  • How the company will operate.
  • The types of people you will hire.
  • The clients you choose.
  • How you partner with clients.

Our mission is centered on a fierce commitment to our values and passion for inspiring others. We are committed to earning the trust of our colleagues, communities, and clients by serving them authentically, graciously and humbly. Generosity is so central to who we are that we recently started a nonprofit.

It’s very different than many agencies that focus on creativity and “the work” in their purpose or mission statements – we want to be known for who we are more than what we do.

Want to build your own values-based agency?

Here’s how to ensure the values you set are infused within your organization.

Behavioral interviewing paired with insights

A solid values-based agency starts with hiring the right people and asking them the right questions.

My team asks questions about the candidate’s aptitude, abilities, and client management skills. 

As the person ultimately responsible for culture, I like to ask questions that give me a sense of who the person is. 

These include: “Have you ever been asked to do something that went against your sense of ethics?” and “What’s a common misconception about you?”

  • We also use tools like StrengthsFinder to understand what makes the person tick and how they will fit with the rest of our team.

Protecting our values and shared culture means thinking more broadly than just who the prospective employee is. 

New hires must share the team’s values, complement our existing skillset and enhance the overall team and client experience.

In other words, we want people who can elevate culture while adding new skills to the team.

Having an infinite mindset

Short-term – or finite – thinking can lead people to compromise values they may otherwise hold strongly. 

As an agency leader, you must sometimes focus on short-term needs, like ensuring you have enough money for payroll. But if you’re the type of finite leader who hires and fires based on short-term needs, you’ll build a different culture than you might intend.

Ethical fading, or losing sight of ethical connotations of decisions, can creep in when people are only focused on the near term. Use an infinite mindset whenever possible to build a strong, high-performing, values-based agency.

An infinite mindset means focusing on a greater purpose and acknowledging that the goal of a business is to keep playing the game. The priority is building high-trust teams, understanding that you’ll often need to flex and adapt to stay in business, and respecting your worthy rivals.

Agencies may exhibit finite thinking when they lay people off quickly after losing a client or are solely focused on selling the agency.

Investing in leadership training and development

Most agencies ensure their people are great marketers and are up to speed on the latest tactics. That’s a given and should certainly be part of the marketing training curriculum.

However, investing in leadership training and development at all levels helps ensure your team knows what you truly value. As an agency leader, I see my role as developing the next generation of great leaders, not just the next generation of great marketers.

Get the daily newsletter search marketers rely on.

Now that you know how to ensure values are engrained within your organization, how do you ensure that you’re driving and getting the results for your agency by leading with values? 

It comes through receiving benefits in three key areas.

1. Employee retention

Digital marketers have a lot of choices regarding where to work. While the old perks like pool tables or happy hours used to matter, remote work has changed what drives employee satisfaction and retention.

The ability to leave home to pick up kids and perform some work off-hours. Believing in the company’s values and having systems that allow employees to feel connected to their colleagues. These are all important.

Employee turnover is disruptive both to the company and its clients.

Our turnover is less than half of the norm. I attribute this to leading our people with clarity of our values and setting them up as best as possible to lean into them. 

Are we perfect? No. But with values and purpose as a focus, it helps keep employees around longer than the norm.

The alignment of values is key to building a mutual foundation of trust between employees and an agency. It also helps make bonding easier among employees.

2. Client satisfaction

Clients appreciate values such as transparency, humility, and gratitude.

Building trusted relationships and managing their accounts by a strong values-based group leads to higher client satisfaction and retention.

Of course, the marketers must be managing accounts well – that’s table stakes. 

Building deep relationships builds a shared commitment and vision. It helps create an “us” mentality with the client and agency as a team, as opposed to the common “them” or “vendor” relationship.

One other benefit of building deep relationships? As your client partners leave for other companies, there’s a good chance they will bring you.

3. Increased innovation

Values-led organizations tend to create psychological safety. This means a safe environment exists for individuals to share their thoughts and ideas with leaders. 

Innovation must not be limited to new strategies and tactics – it can be new processes or feedback on what types of services the agency should start or stop offering.

Innovation can be team-based, as well. This can lead to employees being heard and feeling valued, something which will also play into retention

I hope that these views on building a strong values-based culture help you strengthen your agency to drive the results you seek.

Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.



Source link

What is Brand Salience? [+How Do You Measure It?]
Posted by admin

What is Brand Salience? [+How Do You Measure It?] RocksView Digital Hub

best digital marketing agency in abuja 0


While branding can feel like a vague concept, it’s one of the most important elements of a marketing strategy.

A <a href=marketing team strategizes how to increase brand salience.” width=”595″ height=”400″ srcset=”https://blog.hubspot.com/hs-fs/hubfs/brand-salience.jpg?width=298&height=200&name=brand-salience.jpg 298w, https://blog.hubspot.com/hs-fs/hubfs/brand-salience.jpg?width=595&height=400&name=brand-salience.jpg 595w, https://blog.hubspot.com/hs-fs/hubfs/brand-salience.jpg?width=893&height=600&name=brand-salience.jpg 893w, https://blog.hubspot.com/hs-fs/hubfs/brand-salience.jpg?width=1190&height=800&name=brand-salience.jpg 1190w, https://blog.hubspot.com/hs-fs/hubfs/brand-salience.jpg?width=1488&height=1000&name=brand-salience.jpg 1488w, https://blog.hubspot.com/hs-fs/hubfs/brand-salience.jpg?width=1785&height=1200&name=brand-salience.jpg 1785w” sizes=”(max-width: 595px) 100vw, 595px”/>

Why? Consistent branding leads to increased brand awareness which can then help build brand salience, gain investors, and drive revenue to your business. Consistently presented brands are 3.5 times more likely to have excellent brand visibility than those with inconsistent branding. Additionally, 82% of investors say name recognition is an important factor guiding them in their investment decisions.

Download Now: Free Brand Building Guide

In this post, we’ll review what brand salience is, how you can increase your brand visibility, and how to measure it.

Skip to:

What is brand salience?

Brand salience is a marketing KPI that tells you how well people recognize, notice, or think about your brand when they’re making purchasing decisions.

If you have high brand salience, then you have a strong brand presence that consumers recognize and think about when they need a product.

If you have low brand salience, then consumers might not know your brand exists and therefore won’t think of your brand when they need to make a purchase.

Essentially, brand salience is a similar metric to marketing/brand-awareness”>brand awareness except it’s focused on measuring awareness during the actual purchasing decision instead of overall brand visibility.

For example, when someone wants to get a cup of coffee and is driving around, what’s the first brand they think of? Probably Starbucks. When they want to buy tissues, they think of Kleenex. When they want to search for something online, they Google it.

All of these brands have transcended the perception of being a random company, and are now household names in their own right. Most people think of these brands and know of them whether they’ve been there or used those products before. These brands have high brand salience.

Importance of Brand Salience

To have high brand salience, your customers need to think about your brand as the first solution to their wants or needs when they have to make a purchasing decision.

The concept of brand salience is actually psychological in nature. According to research done by Jenni Romaniuk and Byron Sharp, brand salience is “a brand’s propensity to be noticed or come to mind in buying situations.”

This means that you have to capture people’s attention and be memorable enough for consumers to recall your brand when they’re purchasing something.

For example, when a consumer has a choice of brands to purchase from, they’ll rely both on their memory and attention salience. This means they’ll recall brands they know and then see what captures their attention.

This process is actually scientific. People who have studied brand salience have studied the human brain — how do people recall information and how does a brand associate positive memory structure with their product?

When they want to buy an item, people are far less likely to run through a list of options and do the mental gymnastics of figuring out the pros and cons of each.

Instead, they’ll choose the option that first comes to mind as it’s often the one they are most confident about. Having a high brand salience increases the odds that the brand they choose is yours.

To increase your brand salience, some of your marketing campaigns probably won’t even focus on persuading consumers to buy your product. The goal of many branding campaigns is to constantly reinforce positive associations with your brand.

Familiarity is important. Constant marketing messages from a brand ensure that the brand is top-of-mind when a consumer is making a purchasing decision.

Next, we’ll discuss how brand salience impacts marketing efforts.

Brand Salience marketing

Brands create high brand salience by using distinctive brand assets that capture attention and create positive memories for their audience.

This means your marketing assets promote positive storytelling and create a meaning associated with marketing/branding”>your brand. When you promote your values, you’re differentiating your brand from the competition and increasing brand salience.

Your strategy should be two-pronged, capturing both the attention and memory of your target audience.

  • Memory: Being top of mind for customers when they make purchasing choices.
  • Attention: Being able to capture the customer’s attention at the time of purchase.

To create campaigns that will improve brand salience, think about the emotional impact of your assets. Your campaigns should be meaningful, authentic, and portray your values as a company.

All of this will help customers create a positive association with your brand and remember your brand when it comes time to make a purchase.

For example, let’s say I want to buy some gum. When I think about gum, one of the first things I think of are the commercials for Extra. I’ve never forgotten those commercials because they were emotional and created a positive experience for me.

Now, when I think about gum, I usually buy Extra even though that brand has never been my favorite gum company (I used to buy Orbit). But since those commercials, I’ve leaned toward Extra because of the positive association and it’s one of the first brands I recall.

Ultimately, brand salience is a combination of brand awareness, familiarity, relevance, frequent communication, and emotional connections between brand and consumer.

How to Increase Brand Salience

Creating brand salience takes time and a carefully crafted strategy. Let’s go over a few methods to boost your brand salience.

1. Establish an emotional connection.

Humans are emotional creatures. What better way to create customer memories than to trigger an emotional connection to your brand?

Just like the Extra gum commercials have cemented themselves into my consciousness making it my gum of choice, you can use storytelling to do the same for your brand.

Take the vacation rental company VRBO. Instead of just persuading people to use their service based on how nice the available rentals are, they built a narrative around the moments created while staying in one of their rentals.

From family reunions to holidays to game nights, VRBO’s commercials instill memories of togetherness with our favorite people.

2. Create a brand that stands out.

It’s difficult to cultivate brand salience if your brand gets lost in the crowd. Being unique and most importantly, authentic goes a long way in setting you apart from the competition.

What are your brand’s values? Does your product aim to solve a major problem in your industry or market? Whatever drives your company, lean into it. Having a brand that conveys authenticity will help build trust with customers and gain their loyalty.

3. Expand brand awareness.

Increasing your brand awareness will aid your efforts to improve brand salience. After all, you can’t build a connection with customers if they are unfamiliar with your brand in the first place.

What challenges or obstacles are your customers facing? Focus your messaging on these obstacles and how your brand solves them. Communicating that you understand the customer’s pain points will make them more likely to want to learn more about your brand and the products you offer.

4. Keep marketing efforts consistent.

Distance may make the heart fonder in romantic settings, but it has the reverse effect when it comes to marketing. In order to build brand salience, you’ll need to get your brand in front of prospects over and over again.

Presenting a brand consistently across all platforms can increase revenue by up to 23%. You can use a variety of touchpoints:

  • Social media ads: Use video and other visuals to help build a narrative that connects customers to your brand.
  • TV commercials: This is a pricier option, but a great way to reach a large audience if your budget allows it.
  • Email marketing: Create a newsletter or email campaigns that will keep you in contact with potential customers and keep your brand top of mind.

5. Test and make adjustments.

Your advertising campaigns aren’t set and forget tasks. You’ll need to continue to monitor and make changes based on the results you find.

Use Google Analytics to check the performance of not just your website, but also your promotions. What is resonating with customers? What can be changed?

Are you seeing increased revenue? That’s a sign of success. Conversely, if you see a drop, that could mean you need to tweak your marketing efforts. Surveys and focus groups — more on those later, are also excellent tools for testing brand salience.

Get creative. The methods above aren’t your only option. For example, if your goal is to educate customers, using a podcast format or video may be more useful to your brand.

Now, you might be thinking, “This all sounds great, but how can I measure this and prove its effectiveness to my managers?”

Let’s dive into that below.

How to Measure Brand Salience

Brand salience is rather conceptual in nature. Unfortunately, it’s not a mathematical metric that is easily measured. So, what do brands do?

Use Surveys

Well, one of the only ways to measure brand salience is through surveys. It’s important to ask your customers when they think of you, what they associate with your brand, and if they recall your company when making a purchasing decision.

Your survey can include descriptive assets to track your brand’s distinctive assets. For instance, what tone of voice, logo, color, or slogan comes to mind when users think of soda. They might say red, because they’ve associated Coca-Cola branding with soda in general.

To measure this, you can present survey respondents with a randomized list of cues and attributes by asking them which brands they associate with each statement.

It could be questions like “when I want to eat something quick and healthy” or “I know I will not overpay there.”

Use Focus Groups

Focus groups allow you to ask similar questions to those in your surveys, but also the bonus of digging deeper into their responses. The dynamic is more of a discussion among customers rather than having them quickly rattle off answers to a list of questions.

You can ask customers whether they recall or notice your brand relative to competitors.

Then, ask whether your brand is just thought of or sought after to determine how favorably your brand is judged. The more they talk, the better insights and feedback you’ll receive.

Using a survey or focus group will help you determine how high your brand salience is compared to competitors.

Now, let’s look at the brand salience model that you can use to strategize your brand positioning.

Brand Salience Model

In his book, Strategic Brand Management: Building, Measuring, and Managing Brand Equity, Kevin Keller developed a model for brand salience that has become popular in Digital marketing.

In the graphic below, Keller creates a pyramid of building blocks to pay attention to when you’re trying to increase your brand salience.

Brand Salience: Keller's brand resonance model

Image Source

This model focuses on increasing deep, broad brand awareness by creating an identity that customers remember. At the foundation of the pyramid is salience, which you can increase by defining your brand in detail, frequently communicating with your audience, and using creative assets to tell a story.

Then, you create meaning and authenticity to differentiate your brand from the competition. And then, you use frequent messages to create positive, accessible reactions in your customers. And then you create loyalty by building a relationship and emotional connection with your audience.

With this model, you can increase brand salience, drive revenue, and even attract investors.

Brand Salience is Key to Success

Needless to say, branding is important for your business to succeed. Although brand salience isn’t the easiest metric to track, the science proves that focusing on it will help your company become a household name for your customers.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in July 2021 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

brand consistency



marketing/brand-salience”>Source link

Microsoft explores sharing Bing Chat ad revenue with publishers
Posted by admin

Microsoft explores sharing Bing Chat ad revenue with publishers RocksView Digital Hub

best digital marketing agency in abuja 0


Microsoft said they are beginning to explore ways to share ad revenue it generates through the new Bing, Bing Chat, directly with select publishers. As a reminder, Bing Chat has had ads since it first launched on February 7th. Now, Microsoft says it will look to “share the ad revenue with partners whose content contributed to the chat response.”

What is new. Yusuf Mehdi from Microsoft wrote, “We’re also exploring placing ads in the chat experience to share the ad revenue with partners whose content contributed to the chat response.” This is because, as he said, “We recently met with some of our partners to begin exploring ideas and to get feedback on how we can continue to distribute content in a way that is meaningful in traffic and revenue for our partners.”

Microsoft Start partners. This seems to be something that Microsoft is conducting through its Microsoft Start partners program. “For our Microsoft Start partners, placing a rich caption of Microsoft Start licensed content beside the chat answer helping to drive more user engagement with the content on Microsoft Start where we share the ad revenue with the partner,” Yusuf Mehdi added.

The Microsoft Start program is from 2021, you can learn more about it over here.

Microsoft gets publishers. Microsoft is clearly showing the value of publishers with this blog post. “The Internet works because of an important ecosystem which starts with publishers creating great content which drives traffic and interest by people to consume that content, and then ultimately advertisers that want to reach people in a high quality and targeted environment,” Yusuf Mehdi wrote. Without publishers, search and chat would not function as well and Microsoft wants to make sure that publishers are compensated so they can continue to generate quality content.

“For the most part this dynamic has worked well as publishers get paid for their content through advertising which enables people to access the content for free,” he added. So this is why Microsoft wants to find ways to share ad revenue with publishers.

Ads in Bing Chat. Like I said above, ads in Bing Chat are not new. There are many reports claiming Bing Chat has recently added ads. That is incorrect, in fact, on February 7th, Microsoft demonstrated ads in Bing Chat and we even reported about meetings with advertisers and brands about the future of ads in Bing Chat.

I covered a lot of the ad formats I’ve seen since it launched in a story on the Search Engine Roundtable from 3-days after the launch of Bing Chat. Here are some of those ad formats, click to enlarge any of these images:

Ads Bing Search Chat Ai 1675945472 800x338
FpfbeMkXEAAii6G 761x600
FptB5ixXwAAr4tM 360x600
FpvDLMZWIAA2GVS 800x336
Fpf43AcXgAE0gnI 698x600
Fpfl6veXEAApOmx 633x600
This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Fpfl6veXEAApOmx-1-633x600.jpg
Fpfl6veXEAApOmx 1 633x600

Why we care. While Google Bard seems to have turned a blind eye to publishers, Microsoft is looking for ways to not just link and drive traffic to publishers but also help them earn revenue from the responses provided by Bing Chat.

It is nice to see one big search engine outwardly talking about compensating publishers for the answers it generates through the content produced by hard-working publishers.

This is all very early and rapidly changing, and we will continue to report what we find – so stay tuned and subscribe!



Source link

Posts pagination
Message sent!